


A Tale of Lost Time

by KJDreamer



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fox Family, Found Family, Gen, Let's see how long it takes to get to those warnings, Retelling of the game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 02:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19286215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KJDreamer/pseuds/KJDreamer
Summary: Harriet "Hattie" finds herself on a strange planet with all the time pieces from her ship scattered everywhere! Deciding that this won't do at all, she goes about collecting them all, the residents of the planet both helping and harming her as she goes. But as all stories go, not all is as it seems and many falls to the temptations of the time pieces. Hattie just wants to be with her family again.This fic is set in my fox family AU! The AU is basically that Hat Kid has a fox family(duh), with a fair amount of differences thrown about. A lot of events get mixed around and some worlds will get a big make over.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fic ever and I'm really excited! I'm not too confident in my writing but here goes nothing!

“Goodnight, my sweet child…”  


He gazes lovingly at the brown-haired girl as he tucks her into bed. Carefully he lifts his hands and backs away, taking in the peaceful sight before him.

 

Curled up under her comforter, the small child snores softly. Her brown hair spilling around her head, framing it not unlike a lion’s mane would, with a bit of lavender poking out from which her tiny hands reached out to grip the soft material. Her favorite purple top hat sits on the desk beside her bed, the brightness of the yellow stripe on it indicative of how freshly cleaned it was.

 

The trance he was in quickly breaks as he felt a piercing glare from his left. With a sigh, he turns towards the mass of pillows that took up half the room, focusing his attention on the brightly glowing pair of red eyes gleaming from the depths of the plush bedding. As the other being narrows their eyes at him, he unconsciously grips his sore right side with his left hand.

 

“I’m fine, really. You go get some rest too,” he chides in a whisper. The only response he gets is a huff and shuffling as the eyes disappear from view.

 

He waits for one moment...

 

Two moments…

 

Once sure the other occupant in the room had nothing to say, he turned to the left once more and walks out the room. He doesn’t spare a glance out the window to his right as he travels through the corridor to the main living space. He doesn’t miss a step as he approaches the door, which smoothly slides open for him, nor does he stumble as Rumbi jumps around his feet happily, the bot being just outside the door, having been cleaning the area. He graces the robot with a smile before turning his attention forward.

 

Out the wall of glass to his right, a shrinking sphere could be seen, a mix of reds and yellows coated its surface. He does his best to pointedly ignore the sight as he heads to the seat in front of the wall. The seat was placed at the exact spot to ensure optimal vision on both sides and was currently turned in his direction. On the left armrest was a large red button while the right held a keypad, both of which are hidden behind mirrored joysticks on both sides, each with a couple of buttons of their own, more notably the large red ones on the top of them. As he approaches the chair, he spins around and drops into it, using his momentum to swivel it around to face the large window.

 

At this point, the sphere had shrunk enough to merely look like a far off star, easily lost in the mundane spacescape before him. Sadly he could still make it out, much to his annoyance. He couldn’t help how his nose and tail twitched as he glares at the offending planet. In a moment of immaturity, he blows a raspberry at it before tapping in commands into the console. With practiced ease, he quickly types in the coordinates to their current home base. Once he confirmed the course to be taken by the ship’s autopilot, he rises back up to retreat to his own living quarters.

 

In his tiredness and soreness, he had quickly dismissed a planet that the ship would be passing by on the way back, thinking it to be inconsequential.

 

Oh, how wrong he would find himself to be.


	2. Welcome to Mafia Town

Everything  _hurts_.

“Hey there, it’s alright, you’re safe with me!”

 

Everything _loud_.

“Oh come on kid, stop whimpering would ya!”

 

With a groan, the small child cracks open her eyes. Immediately, she is greeted by a mustache smack dab in front of her face. Like any reasonable person, she lets out a loud squeak as she shoves the offending facial hair away from her with all her strength. Which, unfortunately for the owner of said mustache, was an unreasonable amount for a kid her size.

 

**_THUMP!_ **

 

“ACK! Oi! What’s the big idea here, I _rescued_ you!” Cries an indignant voice in an accent she didn’t recognize.

 

Now that Hattie’s vision was no longer filled to the brim with blonde hair, she realizes that she did not, in fact, wake up to a floating mustache, but rather an older girl with a mustache that was definitely  _not_ floating. Wild.

 

… And mildly disappointing. Hattie simply stays sitting (when had she sat up?) where she is and stares as the older blonde grumbles and rubs her back. The mustached girl shoots her a glare and huffs, “Well? Aren’t you going to _apologize_?” She stands up straight, wincing at the dull throb from her spine, and crosses her arms. She takes advantage of her height to glare down at the hatted child expectantly. As the silence stretches with no sign of Hattie being intimidated at all, the red-hooded girl opens her mouth to make another quip.

 

It’s at this exact moment that Hattie’s hands fly up to the sides of her head, thumb making contact to her temples. As she wiggles her fingers, she blows the biggest raspberry she could possibly manage at the blonde.

 

The older girl’s left leg takes a step back, the corresponding arm uncrossing and being thrown backward, as offense covers her face. “W-W-W-WAH?! Why you!” She exclaims, making a move to go forward before a twinge from her back reminds her of how strong this darn, sassy lost child is. And for _no good pecking reason_.

 

Hattie looks on at the mustached girl’s disgruntled glare with a rather smug look of her own, though it quickly falls to confusion as the other girl’s face morphs to that of excitement. She goes to back away from the older girl but gets caught off guard when the other surges towards her, gripping her arms a bit too tightly. The older girl doesn’t seem to notice the squeak of pain from Hattie as she starts shouting,

“Wait, wait, wait, _wait_! You’re like super  _duper_ strong! Like, strong enough to _help_ me take down the stupid _mafia_!”

 

Before Hattie could really process anything, the mustached girl, who introduced herself as… Mu? Was that it? Whatever, she swept the poor child to a chalkboard and proceeded to explain… something? Hattie  _thinks_ it was a plan? Whatever it was, it seemed pretty violent. Honestly, the only reason she didn’t try to leave was because these mafia guys were the ones that caused all the time pieces to go flying out the ship, along with herself! Also, they might have one of the time pieces? Which is a big no-no. So that’s how she ended up in front of their base with Mu. Admittedly she had wanted to explore a bit, maybe buy something? She did manage to gather 100 pons on the way after all. Oh but the longer those guys had that time pieces the badder it is. So the little girl sucked it up and just went along with the older girl’s scheme. Which… involves a blue stick? Oh no, it’s an umbrella. Is it going to rain?

 

Seeing the confused look on her face, Mu sighs in exasperation and pokes Hattie on the forehead as she explains, “It’s for  _hitting_ them when I distract those stupid mafia, and you better not break it! That’s my only one.” With that, Mu quickly gets the mafia men’s attention with loud scarily accurate insults. The mafia are very sensitive about these things, apparently. So, Hattie goes up behind one and whacks him with the umbrella and he…

 

 _Explodes????_ Baffled, Hattie looks at the others and… None of them seemed to have noticed??? With a shrug, the younger child just goes with it and explodes the others with the umbrella.

 

Mu hops down, congratulating Hattie on a job well done, then bolts to the front door. The hatted child couldn’t help but question this, weren’t they trying to sneak in? Going through the front door seems like a bad idea. So she doesn’t follow the hooded girl. Nope. Instead, she goes around and finds an open window, which she easily jumps to via some stinky barrels to the right.

 

Luckily, the windowsill was easy for her to stand on, so she simply glances in and spots one of those big mafia guys in the blue striped suits. Like all the others, he too had an apron. However, it seems like he was doing something with it. Not really caring about it, Hattie jumps down onto his head, causing him to explode with a cutoff shout. She giggles and does a little dance, hopping from one leg to the other, the opposing arm flying up into a fist pump. This was like a video game but in real life! How cool!

 

Once done with her little victory dance, Hattie spins around and surveys the room. It was a simple space filled with seating and only one door on the wall opposite of the one the window was on. It was to the left of the window and was slightly ajar. On the walls, there were posters with images of mafia and some dude with a tall chef hat and a large mustache. They also had scribbles that look kinda like writing, but the brunette didn’t recognize any of it. Deeming the room to be dumb, Hattie goes to the door and peeks out.

 

All she could see was.. dark red? Upon further inspection, Hattie realizes it’s a curtain of sorts. Why would one put a curtain over a door? Was this supposed to be a secret room? But it’s so boring, secret rooms should be cool and full of stuff! With a huff of annoyance, she pushes through the curtains and manages to find the hall. Before she could properly examine her surroundings, she catches sight of a glow to her left. With a gasp, the hatted child goes shooting out of her hiding spot and runs towards the light at top speed. (Which was slower than she’d like, but still!)

 

Her destination was the large mustached man from the posters. Unlike the other men here, he wore a red coat over a white chef outfit. He was sitting in a fancy throne on top of a bunch of curved stairs that didn’t lead anywhere. He also had a time piece floating above the upwards palm of his right hand. Before she reaches him, some mafia men came out from around the sides of the stairs. The seated man holds up his hands and calmly yells, “Wait,” before either side could start to attack.

 

Hattie frowns up at him, which he meets with a frown of his own. “Now, just who are you? You are here with that mustached menace of a girl aren’t you?” He inquires, voice even and eyes cold.

 

At the mention of Mu, the younger girl felt a pang of guilt. Oops, she kinda forgot about the other girl. Well… She’ll just save the older child after she’s reclaimed that time piece! With that decided, she points at the hourglass with a defiant gaze.

 

This causes the man to laugh, not a light and cheerful one, no. A dark and condescending one that brings a frown to Hattie’s face.

“Oh, is this  _yours_? Hahaha!”

He stands and takes a step towards her. Takes to the lights stationed behind him, he casts a looming shadow over both the mafia men and the little girl before him. He lets out another booming laugh.

 

“You must be very lost, kid with the hat. You're in the heart of our town, standing before the  _most powerful man you will ever witness. Everything you've ever owned_ **_belongs to me now_ **.”

He leaps down, landing behind the purple-clad girl with such force that she gets knocked off her feet. He twirls around with a grace that’s just plain unfair, and taunts,

“Including this  _hourglass piece_. If you want it, we'll have to settle it in true Mafia style!”

 

**“Light!”**

Everything changes in such a flash that Hattie wasn’t really sure where in relation to their previous location this stage was.

**“Action!”**

The blue-suited men had grabbed her roughly and before she knew it, she was on a stage in front of an expansive crowd of mafia men, _from both sides of the stage_. There were even a few off in the wings!

**“It is…”**

She was on one side while the big boss was on the other. He raises his arms, both of which now wielded two very  _large_ cleavers which were accented with the same maroon as his coat. As he swipes his arms down in her direction, he bellows out,

**“Showtime!”**

 

He doesn’t give Hattie any time to react before he’s spinning like a tornado straight towards her. With a squeak, she just barely manages to jump over him. The sight startles and baffles him, causing him to pause and gape at the small child that managed to  _c_ _lear_ him. The brunette notices that he’s blue now? Why is he blu-

 

“What are you waiting for! He’s blue! Now’s your chance to attack him!” A familiar voice yells from above to her right. Looking over, the child spots Mu, body and arms tied up, hanging from one of the rafters above. Seeing the older girl’s expression go from frustration to exasperation, what she had said finally clicks in Hattie’s mind. Sadly, the blue fades as she looks back over at her opponent. He has a smirk plastered onto his dumb mug and his stance was much more relaxed compared to hers.

Hattie readjusts her hat as he readies to jump. As soon as his feet leave the wooden flooring, she’s shooting across the stage, skidding as she stops and turns back to face the now landed Mafia Boss. He raises his arms once more and announces,

**“Super charge!”**

 

Oh, it’s on now.

 

Hattie weaves through the waves of plasmic magic he channels through his cleavers, leaps over his spinning blades and henchmen, dives out of the way of falling sandbags and even scales the massive ball made of mafia men! She is covered in cuts and bruises that she’ll surely notice later, but for now, the adrenaline coursing through her propels her forward with a final-

**WHOMP!**

 

The Mafia Boss lets out a final cry before landing unconscious onto the hardwood below, the time piece he held flying out to float in the middle of the stage. The audience sits in stunned silence, but Hattie couldn’t care less. She runs over to the glass object, her hand reaches out to clasp it and- pain shoots through her body as she gives a cry and collapses. Now that the fight was over, she hurts, _a lot_. She can’t help the strangled whimper/cry that escapes her throat or how she curls into a ball as tears stream down, stinging cuts and mingling with blood along the way.

 

_“Hey… way… yo… ay?”_

She hears a voice but can’t make anything out, her eyes are stuck shut from the pain.

_“… od… n… t… ok…”_

The last thing she thinks is how scared she is and how much she wants her family with her at that moment.


	3. Aftermath

He doesn’t give Hattie any time to react before he’s spinning like a tornado straight towards her. With a squeak, she just barely manages to jump over him. The sight startles him- he didn’t stop.  _ Why didn’t he stop _ ? Instead, he’s spinning straight back at her and she can’t  _ jump in time _ -

 

Hattie lurches forward with a strangled, alarmed cry. Everything was blurry and shaking, had he jumped? She strains her ears to hear the sounds of his boots stomping on the hardwood floor, but it’s so  _ quiet _ . She can’t breathe, her throat clenching shut and her lungs refusing to pull air in. Tears, everything is blurry because she’s crying, she’s crying because everything  _ hurts _ . She wants her dad. She wants her sister. Where are they,  _ why is she alone _ -

 

Except she’s not. It’s quiet but not silent. Humming… Someone’s humming. It’s an unfamiliar tune, but it’s still comforting. The young child lets out a hoarse sob as she lunges towards the sound.

 

“Oh!”

 

The humming had stopped briefly at the girl’s action but quickly continues as a gentle paw starts to stroke her head. The feeling of soft fur and of a paw gliding through her hair was heaven to the little girl. For that moment, she imagines that it was her Papa holding her, comforting her.

 

…

 

Sadly nothing lasts forever. A familiar voice breaks Hattie’s fantasy. 

 

“Hey! Why is she the one you go to!  _ I’m _ the one who saved you! Again!” An upset, shrill voice all but screeches. The purple-clad child whimpers at the noise, prompting the one holding her to carefully cup her ears protectively. “Mu, please, she has been through enough for one day,” scolds the person in a soft yet stern voice.

 

There’s a sharp huff from behind Hattie and then a thud as the other girl sits down. With a sniffle, the hatted child finally pushes away from the furred person she had been clenching like a lifeline. After wiping away her tears, she realizes the person was a ginger feline (much to her disappointment) with golden eyes and a darker red patch around her left eye. The cat was also wearing a chef’s outfit, much to her discomfort. However, the discomfort disappears at the kind smile the feline gives, which she reciprocates hesitantly.

 

At the noise of shuffling behind her, Hattie twists around in the adult’s hold, freezing as her eyes land on the other girl. Or rather the object in the other girl’s hands. The smile drops instantly from her face as a look of growing horror blooms.

 

Both of the other occupant of the room notices and exchange a concerned glance. Mu gives a nervous smile as she says, surprisingly gently, “Uh, hey kid, you alright-”

 

“ **_You used it._ ** ”

 

They both flinch. The feline looks down at the hatted child, though she couldn’t see the expression on her face, then looks back at Mu. The mustached child however just stares at Hattie with a grossly offended frown. “Wah? Excuse me???” She spits back at the clearly ungrateful child in front of her.

 

Neither were prepared for the inhuman screech that the girl let out as she leaps forward, snatching the hourglass from Mu’s hands as she flew past. Hattie tucks her legs in and rolls upon landing, fluidly using her momentum to spin around. Once she’s settled, she bares her fangs at the hooded girl, the time piece held tightly to her chest.

 

The chef feline gasps, her paws flying up to cover her mouth and brows furrowed in concern. The blonde girl, however, scowls and starts to stomp her right foot as she rants, “Rude! If I hadn’t used that- that magically hourglass thingamajig, you would’ve died!” She gives a huff as she crosses her arms and sticks her tongue out at Hattie. 

“Besides! What’s so wrong about me using it! Do you have any idea what you could do with something like this,  _ little girl _ !” She continues, accenting her statement by pointing at the object in question. Of course, Hattie only responds with a raspberry and a shriek of, “ _ No using it! _ ”

 

The red-clad child growls as she glares at the younger kid. She had had a whole speech planned out to recruit the kid as her sidekick, but clearly, the kid had no interest in justice. She looks to the feline for support, however, the ginger cat simply shakes her head as she walks over. “Mu, you should apologize to her for using her… hourglass. Whatever it is, I’m sure there’s a reason to not mess with it,” she meows, attempting to soothe the tension. 

 

Unfortunately, this only leads to Mu fuming as she whips her head between the other two occupants. She storms over to Hattie, despite the felines objections, and jabs her finger at the young, hissing girl and snarls, “Look here, I’m going to collect these stupid things and use them to fight crime with or without your stupid help!” The hatted girl yells out “NO” as she goes to nip at the other girl’s hand. Anticipating this, Mu quickly backs up and jumps down from the rafters, speeding away with not a glance behind her.

 

The feline runs a paw through her hair, her other paw holding her hat up as she does this. Well, that could have gone better. She’d have to talk to Mu later about this. Glancing over at the new child, her expression softens at the curled-up, trembling form she sees. She walks over and stoops down to gently pick up the small child, making sure to give Hattie the chance to deny the action before going through with it. She stands up and goes over to her favorite chair as she murmurs comfortingly to the girl, “It’s alright, CC’s here.”

  
  
  


A certain blonde-haired girl sits quietly in the cave she calls home. She curls up into herself as she sniffles, doing her best to make sure no tears fall to the ground. She stews in her thoughts, bitter and… lonely. She just wants to fight bad guys and make the world a better place. Why is that so wrong? She had used the stupid hourglass to heal the kid! But instead of thanks, she was met with anger. Why? Why?  _ Why?  _ **_Why?_ **

 

… It doesn’t matter what others think. She’d make all the bad guys pay and right all the wrongs of this world. And those time pieces would be her ticket to doing just that.


	4. She Came From Outerspace

“Leave Mafia alone, you monster! Here, if Mafia give you  _ this _ , will you go away?” One of the mafia men grovels to the mud-covered little girl. This one in specific was rather… strange looking for a mafia member. His blue suit wasn’t buttoned up and had a tear on his left shoulder (Hattie had no idea what was puffing out of said tear); he also lacked an apron. Not only that but he had an orange plaid shirt, red and white striped bow tie and goofy-looking green glasses. The young child giggles at his cowering, having enjoyed the little game of chase. 

 

She was so used to these guys chasing after her that when this one started to run? She  _ had _ to give chase. Surprisingly he traversed quite the airborne obstacle course with ease. And equally, as surprisingly Hattie was still very good at jumping and climbing even when covered from head to toe with mud. Every time she had caught up to the man lightning flashed and he’d shriek before jumping to the next platform. At least until there was nowhere else to jump to, which is the current situation now. So now he kneeled, hourglass held out to the terrifying child in front of him.

 

Hattie lets out a squeal as she snatches the time piece from his hand, doing a little victory dance before skipping away. She pays the, now relieved, man no mind as she jumps back down, the rain finally washing the rest of the mud off of her.

 

The little girl lets out a satisfied sigh as she lands on the wooden platform surrounding the central tower… thingy. She spins around and surveys the town, looking for any telltale signs of more time pieces in the distance. The time piece currently in her hand being tossed up and down casually beside her.

 

After what happened at the Mafia HQ, CC, the kind chef cat, had offered to help the girl by caring for her on the ship until this whole mess gets dealt with. Hattie was hesitant at first, knowing how her papa felt about strangers, but CC was a nice cat! So she agreed. It made her feel better knowing papa wouldn’t be alone of the ship whenever she went out looking for the time pieces. She had then proceeded to collect time pieces throughout the night, getting one from beating up some mafia guys and another from a weird golden vault.

 

Spotting a twinkle in the distance, Hattie tosses the time piece into her backpack and jumps off the ledge. She sprints off as soon as her feet touch the rocky ground below and weaves through the town. 

 

As she got closer to the gleam, she saw that it was coming from two more mafia people, one of which was on a… firework rocket? Weird. She skips over to them and one of them notices her. He points at her and says something to the one mounted on the rocket. The rocket one nods and the other runs off. 

 

She tilts her head as the rocket man looks back over at her. He gives a smirk as he inquiries, “Little child want to race fastest man alive? Mafia stole _ Time Piece _ from HQ. If you win, Mafia give it to you.” At the mention of the time piece, Hattie vigorously nods her head and starts to jog in place to show that she is very much ready to race.

 

He lets out a laugh as he nods in return. “It is on! Mafia not sure Mafia survive this, but at least Mafia die as fastest man alive!”

 

The hatted child makes a confused face as she pauses.  _ Die _ ???? Before she could say anything, the rocket goes shooting off, man and all. She stands in shock for a moment before she realizes what’s going on. She lets out an annoyed huff, how was she supposed to beat him if he’s using a rocket! Then her eyes widen as a lightbulb goes off in her head. She scrambles for her backpack and yanks the time piece out. She takes a deep breath before snapping the hourglass, activating it. 

 

Using the time piece already in her possession, she easily beat the rocket man, nagging the prize time piece right in front of his face. She easily sidesteps as he goes flying into the water, a worried expression on her face as she waits to see the fate of the man. Once he resurfaces and confirms his survival, Hattie starts to do her silly ‘smug’ dance, her expression resembling that of a cat with eyes lidded and a devilish grin on her face. Her body sways from side to side, bouncing as she goes, and her arms waving in the ultimate arching motion going to the opposite side that her body goes.

 

Her little victory dance is interrupted by a yawn, indicating that it was extremely past her bedtime. She waves goodbye to the two mafia men responsible for the race, the one that put the time piece in place trying to pull the rocket one out of the water, and then pulls out her modified umbrella. She presses a button on it and zooms up to her ship to get a good night’s rest. Completely unaware of spiteful eyes burning into her as she went.

  
  
  


Even before she had touched down in Mafia town, Hattie knew something was terribly wrong. Kinda hard to miss it even without the unbearable heat. Mafia town is covered in lava. All the people, both the mafia and not mafia, were panicking as the lava sears all that touches it. She looks around in concern and quickly rushes over upon spotting the goofy glasses mafia man.

 

Without missing a beat, the large man exclaims, “Look at mess! This is terrible!” He gestures around as he continues, “Someone turn on all faucets in Mafia Town… same faucets that control the town volcano!”

Hattie squints as she hears this. She had noticed the faucets sure, but she had thought they were just, ya know? There? For any possible giants that stop by and need some clean water to wash their hands off with. Why do they spout  _ lava _ ? Of course, she doesn’t bother interrupting nor does he give an explanation.

“Was it you child?” He questions frantically, to which she responds with an equally frantic head shake from side to side. “No?” He sighs, before cupping his chin with a hand and letting out a hmm. “Mafia think he saw a  _ little girl _ turn on all faucets.” Hattie frowns as she thinks of the only other little girl in mafia town (that she knows about at least). The large man looks at her pleadingly through his strange glasses as he begs, “Little hat kid, can you save Mafia Town by  _ turning off all faucets _ ? If you close all, maybe water start flowing again!”

 

It only takes a moment before the small child was nodding and even less for her to shoot off to the nearest faucet. As she leaped away, the supporting voices of the town residents all around her roars up. Fueled by the cheers of both mafia and not mafia, she makes her way through a construction site, leaping over a path, one she remembers walking through before, filled to the brim with lava. She launches off the ledge and manages to land on the faucet below a house’s balcony. She’s thankful that the metal wasn’t actually hot despite the lava flowing out of it. Using her umbrella, she whacks the knob until it stops turning and the lava no longer flowed.

 

She whips her sweaty brow as she looks out at the sea of lava. Hattie lets out an annoyed huff as she jumps off and rushes over the lines holding flags strung up everywhere in the town. She heads towards the lighthouse, the next faucet insight. She wills her legs to go as fast as they could, wanting to be rid of this heat soon. Oh how she hated heat and fire, the only consolation was that her sister wasn’t anywhere in Mafia Town.

 

Eventually, the small, hatted child finally found herself closing the last faucet. She could tell because as soon as the lava stopped flowing from it, the lava spewing from the middle tower was chased away by the water that was normally supporting(?) the Mafia HQ. She quickly hops off the faucet and runs back over to the middle, striking the nearby bell as she zooms past. When she arrives at the wooden platform that she had initially landed on, she notices the lack of the goofy man. Before she had to ponder this too long, one of the men nearby points upwards. She goes running towards the cannon nearby and proceeds to be shot into the sky. 

 

As soon as she lands, cheering sounds around her, startling the child. All around the landing area was a bunch of tables covered in food and a fair amount of Mafia. All most all of the men were celebrating, some were even doing silly dances. Hattie happens to recognize some of them! She spots the two from the race earlier, the rocket one attempting to replicate her smug dance, rather poorly but a good attempt nonetheless. There was also the goofy one that had requested her help in the first place, it looks like he was waiting for her.

 

The glasses-wearing mafia approaches her, exclaiming, “You did it! Small child saved Mafia Town! Now Mafia no longer have to eat lava for breakfast… amazing!” He gestures to his left towards a time piece that sat on a table “Please, take this as trophy. You are truly the hero of Mafia Town!” With that, the two exchanges a high five before Hattie skips over to claim her reward.

She goes to leave but before she can press the button on her umbrella, one of the mafia men steps forward. It was the one person who hadn’t been joining the festivities. He stands before the small child, wringing his hands as he glances around. When his eyes meet the eyes of the goofy man, the other nods at him which seems to give him the strength to speak. Turning back to the little girl, he speaks in a quiet voice. “Little hat kid, you have helped Mafia lots, so Mafia help you. Boss still has time piece. Boss been acting… strange. Mafia thinks it is the time piece. Please help Mafia. Take time piece from Boss.” 

 

Hattie stares in surprise, not expecting something like this. Remembering her last encounter with the Mafia Boss has her grimacing. She starts to shake her head from side to side, but spots the falling expression on his face and hesitates. She had to get the time piece anyways…

Noticing the situation, another nearby mafia member pipes up and pleads, “Please small hat child, Mafia will help you.” At this, the entire celebration collapses into waves and waves of similar sentiment. The child simply didn’t have the heart to decline at this point and so she gives a firm nod. Everyone broke out into cheers, the nervous man and the glasses man going over and asking her to rest for a day before coming back so plans could be discussed.

 

Needless to say, CC was  _ not _ happy to hear about this and insisted on coming with to help out.


End file.
